Normally I don't care much for magic realism, but Haven has really nailed it. The season-ender was a lulu.

I finally got around to watching the first episode of Continuum, the Canadian series showing on SyFy. The first words in the episode were spoken by Tony Mendola (Master Brae'tac in Stargate: SG-1). Then a few minutes later we got William B. Davis (the cigarette-smoking man in The X-Files). So I started thinking it couldn't be long before Brian Markinson showed up -- and so he did, as a police official. The show itself...I don't know. I need to see a few more episodes.

SyFy has just bought a series called Helix from Ron Moore, who did Battlestar Galactica (and also Caprica, unfortunately). It hasn't even been cast yet...it sold on the basis of a pitch and a few scripts alone. Let's hope Moore learned from BSG and won't give us another cop-out ending.

It's about some scientists from the Center for Disease Control who visit a high tech installation in Antarctica to investigate a possible outbreak of some disease or other but find something that threatens the entire planet. Something...a virus? a space alien? James Arness? It does sound like The Thing.

It's Orphan Black, and it is intriguing. But I'm at a loss as to how we're supposed to view our resourceful heroine. She's a druggie, she steals a dead woman's identity, wears her clothes, cleans out her bank account...

It was good to see Celia Imrie in Doctor Who. Quite a different role from the last one I saw her play (Marigold Hotel). But I kind of miss Amy.

That should take three or four seasons. I guess the interest will come from watching how she handles dicey situations in her assumed life, like swallowing the restroom soap to cause herself to vomit when she was being questioned.

I miss Amy too. Remember her first appearance as an adult? She was dressed as a cop, but it turned out to be a costume instead of uniform, for some low-paying job she had. But even cast in that Miss Nobody role, she was a real presence on the screen, someone you'd never confuse with anyone else...right from her very first scene. The new companion...well, she's a pretty brunette, but there are thousands of those. Right now I can't even remember her face.

The last episode of Doctor Who was...not good. In fact, I think it's the only Matt Smith episode I haven't liked. As for Orphan Black -- if you hadn't already guessed the answer to the "twins" problem, the preview of the coming episode gave it away. I hate when they do that.